In Focus, Harry Kane, England

England are close to winning a title again and the players to chose from are young and ready for their next step in professional football. To see Gareth Southgate being the man to bring this project to the stars and hopefully a winning title, without any such experience from his past, neither as player or manager, it must be up to his talisman Harry Kane to fix this with his goalscoring touch and captain abilities.

So does Harry Kane have that ability to captain England to a winning title. As a club player Kane has shown his quality, but in real never won a trophy and despite coming close a couple of times in the past, not really being there when it counted, being “light” injured and a bit out form in the Nations League and the World Cup, he might get it right when the next chance comes around.

Bobby Moore, the captain of England in 66, had lifted trophies at club level in the seasons before. Captained West Ham United to an FA Cup win and also copied that in the European Cup Winners Cup.

Kane’s goalscoring ratio is good and his tally of 25 goals in 40 games is one not to fault, but looking at the winners of those World Cup and Euro trophies in the past, you have some impressive stats. Gerd Muller, winner of both the European Championship and World Cup with West Germany scored 68 goals in 62 games for his country.

Pele, managed 77 in 92 for Brazil, winning three World Cup titles during his days in the national team. Italian Paulo Rossi scored 20 in 48 games. Geoff Hurst scored 24 in 49 games, with Jimmy Greaves netting 44 in 57. Alan Shearer found the net in 30 of his 63 England games, while Gary Lineker scored 48 in 80. Harry Kane is up there with some, but as we have seen not yet convinced that his goalscoring ratio at international level will secure a “big title” for England.

He is a scorer of the penalties Harry Kane, and in that yesterdays game v. Bulgaria, getting two- He also scored from active play, getting three against a Bulgaria team not really of the same standards as when Hristo Stoichkov was the main man for the 1994 World Cup bronze finalists.

He is an impressive forward Harry Kane, and at league level his tally is convincing enough with 128 goals in 182 games, but his contribution for England needs to even get to a higher level if him and Gareth Southgate are to secure a big title for his nation.

Harry Kane, still only 26, does have a few years left in the limelight and hopefully he will be able to be at his very best when England enters the Euro’s next summer, with the final being played at Wembley, and then again showing his best in the 2022 World Cup which will be played in Qatar late in the year.

So does England have the rest of the “garment” to win such a great title, we believe so. There are enough options up front with great pace, relatively young age and if the Chelsea’s, Tottenham’s, Man Utd’s, Liverpool’s and Man City’s can continue to bring forward English talent, then this could go all the way.

To see Harry Kane as captain is of course something we all like, since he is a role model for most and taking his duty very seriously. So we just have to wait and see if Harry Kane can outplay those former captains, recently been Steven Gerrard, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.